Are Energy Drinks Slowly Killing All the Bros?

The Bro is a complex beast, a mythical concoction of tribal tattoos and Tapout shirts whose Bro psyche has been widely covered in Bro-related trend pieces. Who is the Bro? How does he think? For whom and what does the Bro pine? Luckily, science is our impartial observer. And here, in two studies, science addresses the dietary habits of the Bro (bronis lifticus), bringing us one step closer to unlocking this great Bro mystery.

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Bros love energy drinks. And, according to researchers at the University of Akron and Texas Tech University, there's a scientific reason behind this: "Men who subscribed most to stereotypically masculine beliefs were also more likely to believe that energy drinks work wonders," The Atlantic reports.

The authors hypothesize that the path works something like this: Adherence to masculinity ideology influences energy-drink expectations, which in turn influence energy-drink consumption, which can cause sleep disturbances.

"Masculinity affects energy-drink use indirectly by affecting young men's expectations of what energy drinks will do for them," said the University of Akron psychology professor and study co-author Ronald Levant. "These young men believe that is the way men should be, want to be that, and believe that energy drinks will make them be that way."

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And while this is fascinating in its own right, it is only the beginning, because another study looks at what these energy drinks do to the human–and, specifically, to the Bro–body. It's not good. As The L.A. Times reports:

A team of cardiovascular researchers at the esteemed (Mayo Clinic) in Rochester, Minn., reported that a single can of Rockstar energy drink can boost your blood pressure and cause the fight-or-flight hormone norepinephrine to increase in just 30 minutes ... After consuming Rockstar, their systolic blood pressure rose about 6%, from 108.4 millimeters of mercury to 115 mmHg, on average, and their diastolic blood pressure rose nearly 7%, from 64.3 mmHg to 68.5 mmHg, on average. By contrast, systolic blood pressure rose just 3% and diastolic blood pressure was flat after drinking the placebo beverage.

Could this endanger the wild and elegant Bro? Researchers at the Mayo Clinic said the findings do not bode well:

"The increases in blood pressure and norepinephrine after consuming an energy drink may make people more vulnerable to cardiovascular problems, they wrote in a study published online Sunday by the Journal of the American Medical Assn."